Individual cooling suits and blankets have been attempted to provide cooling of people. Much of the work on this type of equipment has been done in the design of suits to be worn in space. In these prior art devices, cooling is accomplished by circulating a cooling liquid through cooling coils in the suit and supplying cooling air to a helmet to assure the supply of a cool air for breathing and cooling of the individual's face. A typical example of this type of suit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,593. A suit to be worn during operations in a hospital is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,367 and includes tubes through which cooling liquid from a hyperthermia machine is circulated.
Another type of suit is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,174,300 which recirculates air by a blower carried in the suit through a carbon dioxide absorber and a coolant tank. The garmet shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,479,838 utilizes a reduced pressure to cause water to boil in order to provide body cooling. A heat treating garment is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,610,251 which flows hot air into a baglike garment having apertures in the wrist or shoulders to allow escape of the hot air.
The R. S. Gaugler U.S. Pat. No. 2,093,834 discloses a refrigerating apparatus which can be used as a bed cover or as a garment. The cooling air or treating medium is supplied to an enclosure formed of sheeting and diffuses through the sheeting to cool the body of the individual under the apparatus.
None of these prior structures provide a simple structure which is suitable to cool an individual over a substantial portion of his body while he is asleep.